For this week’s Mental Sunshine, I want to talk to you about the concept of “forced consistency”
I know that doesn’t sound very “sunshiny” but bear with me!
I saw someone on social media the other day say that when you’re consistent, your days all look the same – but if you’re not consistent, your years all look the same
It’s a handy little quip for social media, but it makes a good point.
The people who make progress in life, whatever their chosen area of progress, are the ones who just keep showing up, day after day
There’s no secret sauce, no special life hack
They’re just consistent.
Day in, day out, doing the same thing over and over.
Whether they want to or not
Often when they really don’t want to.
That forced consistency, the getting up and doing the thing even on the days when you really don’t feel like it…
That’s what gets you to where you want to be
And it also, over time, makes you feel pretty good about yourself!
I’m not saying you should stick with something you really don’t enjoy or want to do
But if it’s something you want to get better at
Something you want to keep doing
There will be days when you really don’t feel like putting in the hard graft – and those are the days where forced consistency becomes important.
Feeling motivated is nice – and it’s really useful
But getting things done when you feel motivated relies on you feeling motivated!
If you wait to feel motivated, you could have whole weeks or even months where you don’t feel like it
Forcing yourself to be consistent means doing the thing on a regular basis, whether you feel like it or not.
And in doing that, you change your perception of yourself.
You become the sort of person who does what needs to be done, even when they don’t feel like it.
So – what forced consistency will you put in place today?